<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I’m an Israeli who is interested in applying to a college in the U.S for an undergraduate degree in aero/astro engineering.</p>
<p>I’m 22 years old, and am entirely self-sufficient (I live in an apartment on my own, and have a job as a .NET programmer and even have my own savings, and a very respectable salary). My parents are, in fact, unable to fund anything for me due to massive debts.</p>
<p>Although I’m pretty sure that I’ll be able to get accepted into one of the colleges I’m aiming for, it is less likely that I’ll be able to fund my way through a degree without financial aid of some sort.</p>
<p>This poses a problem for me, since practically all the colleges I’ve looked at assume that a student’s parents will be completely involved in paying for the tuition of the student. I’ve even heard about cases where parents put a second mortgage on a house, or sell a car to get their kid through a degree. Such things aren’t a possibility for me.</p>
<p>While I don’t mind filling the fin-aid forms with my parents’ financial information, I haven’t really seen anything about self-sufficient students beyond the old ‘we’ll judge it case-by-case’ thing. I worry that I won’t be able to get any sort of financial aid from a college.</p>
<p>Additionally, I can’t get a loan in Israel that will cover any substancial part of my tuition for me (banks here simply don’t offer that kind of thing for school because the tuition in Israel is laughably cheap).</p>
<p>So, essentially, I’m looking for any unformation regarding scholarships for non-U.S citizens, merit-based (I’ve got good grades), children of holocaust survivors, aero/astro undergrads etc.</p>
<p>I’m also looking for information about on-campus jobs, since on an F-1 visa those are the only kind of jobs available to me during the school year. What kind of jobs are there? How much do they pay? What percentage of a college tuition can these cover?</p>
<p>Also, if there’s any sort of loan for international students that doesn’t require a U.S citizen as a co-signer, I’d love to hear about it…</p>
<p>Anything that will help me cover a substancial percent of a tuition will do, really. </p>
<p>Thanks,
-M.</p>